08/29/2007  August 29, 2007 - A large portion of semiconductor manufacturing may have shifted to Asia, but Silicon Valley still holds a surprisingly strong position in the industry thanks to its diverse ecosystem of participants -- and minus behemoth Intel it's well outpacing the rest of the industry's growth, according to data from iSuppli Corp.

08/29/2007  August 29, 2007 - NAND average selling prices (ASP) have recovered to flat to slightly up since a 33% plunge in 1Q07, and demand is picking up, notably for computing applications -- but beware of a lot of capacity that's about to come online, notes analyst firm Semiconductor Partners, in a new research report.

08/29/2007  August 29, 2007 - Toshiba Corp. is speeding up its planned 25% increase in production of CMOS image sensors used by roughly six months, from next March to this October, due to projections of growing demand in the handset market and use of cell phone cameras with increasingly higher resolutions, notes the Nikkei daily.

08/29/2007  August 29, 2007 - Korean foundry Dongbu HiTek says it will start volume production next month of low-power 8MB/3V SRAM devices for EMLSI, a provider of memory for mobile applications, having shifted the work from Dongbu's 0.18-micron CMOS process to its 0.15-micron process.

08/29/2007  August 20, 2007 -- /Prime Newswire/ -- CHASKA, MN -- Entegris has announced its acquisition of the assets of the high-purity semiconductor coatings business of Surmet Corporation, located in Burlington, MA.

08/28/2007  High-k and metal-gates (HK+MG) has been touted as the biggest change in semiconductors in 40 years, but as we approach the limits of silicon channels for CMOS circuits, compound semiconductors are being reconsidered as building blocks for mainstream ICs -- and that will be a far greater integration challenge. Enter Intel researchers, who now say they've passed a milestone along the road many travel to heterogeneous integration: integrated superior device performance.

08/28/2007  August 28, 2007 - Contract pricing for all memory devices have shown signs of recovery in the past month, but stubbornly soft spot prices threaten to erode those gains, and the next few weeks could spell real trouble for the DRAM market, according to data from several analysts.

08/28/2007  Veeco Instruments has introduced a line of production-scale PV-Series Thermal Deposition Sources, which promise to help copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) thin film solar manufacturers more quickly transition from pilot to full-scale solar-cell production.

08/28/2007  Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation honored Rohm and Haas Electronic Materials, CMP Technologies with the company's 2007 Excellent Supplier Award, recognizing the efforts of the four Rohm and Haas business units that support SMIC: CMP Technologies, Microelectronic Technologies, Packaging and Finishing Technologies and Ion Exchange Resins.

08/27/2007  August 27, 2007 - Concerns about LSI Logic's strategy in the NAND flash memory segment are "no longer warranted," according to an industry analyst, who says the company is showing better end-market fundamentals and a clearer direction in NAND, including how to address several implementation hurdles for solid-state storage devices (SSD).

08/27/2007  August 27, 2007 - Months after initiating a policy that requires government approval to invest in or export certain technologies, the Korean government has narrowed its definition to 40 core "technologies of national interest" in a variety of industries, with DRAM and NAND flash chipmaking at the top of the list.

08/27/2007  August 27, 2007 - A roundup of the past week's headlines from Japan nets an interview with Elpida Memory president Yukio Sakamoto, musing about a $3 ceiling for DRAM prices, softness for 200mm tools, and the market impact of Samsung's recent multiline production blackout. Also in the news are Renesas/NEC's 45nm ramp schedule, new quake-minimizing systems, an investor rebuff from NEC, and a miniature lamp for a new breed of tiny inspection devices.

08/27/2007  August 27, 2007 - Nanometrics says it has completed the sale of facilities in Narita, Japan, related to the flat-panel display business that it sold in 2005 and "had sat unutilized" ever since. Also sold was a residential condo near the company's headquarters in Milpitas, CA. Together the sales will add about $2 million in cash and both reduce debt and add income of approximately $1.2 million in 3Q07.

08/24/2007  August 24, 2007 - Fabless giant Qualcomm became the first fabless company to crack the top 10 chip supplier ranks in 2Q07, buoyed by its ascent in the wireless area, according to new data from iSuppli Corp. Meanwhile, many well-known Asian chip suppliers took hits during the quarter.

08/24/2007  Viscom AG will acquire the MX family of infrared (IR) inspection systems for semiconductor, MEMS, and package inspection from Phoseon Technology. The deal includes intellectual property (IP), product development, licensing, customer base, and employees attached to the inspection line. It will broaden Viscom's offering beyond AOI and X-ray inspection tools, said Volker Pape, co-founder and board member, Viscom.

08/24/2007  With its recent move into production and commercial shipment of its top-emissive, polymer-based organic light-emitting diode (P-OLED) microdisplays, MicroEmissive Displays (MED) has become the first European company to manufacture such devices at volume levels. Small Times' Tom Cheyney reports.

08/24/2007  August 24, 2007 - Sanmina-SCI has hired Joseph Bronson as president/CEO and a board member, responsible for the company's business execution, financial results, operational performance, and the overall business development and growth.

08/23/2007  August 23, 2007 - Korea's Hynix Semiconductor will likely sell off chipmaking equipment from its M8 and M9 200mm DRAM lines in Cheong-ju, North Chungcheong Province, by the end of this year in order to shift more production to its 300mm business and increase productivity, according to anonymous "high-ranking" company officials quoted by the Korea Times, who also projected spending ~12.5T won ($13.25B) by the end of 2010 to build 3-4 new 300mm DRAM plants.

08/23/2007  August 23, 2007 -- Surfect Technologies says it has launched a wafer bumping service program utilizing its single-cell electroplating process for 200mm and 300mm IC manufacturers and OEMs performing low-volume production, preliminary wafer-level packaging, R&D, or new product introduction (NPI), or evaluating wafer-bumping systems.

08/22/2007  (August 24, 2007) TEMPE, AZ